What makes a good antagonist?

[The Fault In Our Lives]

I was always wondering this. Age doesn't limit the greatness of your protagonist, does it? All my characters are teenagers and its a mystery, and the main person driving the plot forward is actually the antagonist.

[Superindelible Marker]

I don't write with protagonists that young, so I'm not exactly sure sweatdrop I suppose the reasonable thing to think is do they have the skills, experience, and mental ability to do what you want you want them to do? As in, I personally don't think a standard 14 year old would be able to work that well in a mystery unless they were fodder, because I don't think they're mentally advanced enough to do the work. A 16 or 17 year old, though, would have a bit more experience under their belt and could probably do more. It really depends on what you want to do with the characters and who your audience is.


The main thing for antagonists is, for the love of all, make them believable. They have to believe their own cause is right - no human or creature wants to think they are the bad guy. The easiest thing I have found for making decent antagonists is give them a backstory of their own, just as detailed as the protagonist's. Then you'll know how they react to certain situations as well as why they are trying to thwart the protagonist. It'll also give the antagonist consistency and you'll be *less* likely to fall into overused tropes with dialogue/traps/scenes that have been written hundreds of times before, because they don't necessarily fit the way your antagonist is built. I suppose the short way of saying it is make your antagonist as three dimensional as your protagonist(s). No one likes a flat villain.

[The Fault In Our Lives]

Superindelible Marker

I don't write with protagonists that young, so I'm not exactly sure sweatdrop I suppose the reasonable thing to think is do they have the skills, experience, and mental ability to do what you want you want them to do? As in, I personally don't think a standard 14 year old would be able to work that well in a mystery unless they were fodder, because I don't think they're mentally advanced enough to do the work. A 16 or 17 year old, though, would have a bit more experience under their belt and could probably do more. It really depends on what you want to do with the characters and who your audience is.


The main thing for antagonists is, for the love of all, make them believable. They have to believe their own cause is right - no human or creature wants to think they are the bad guy. The easiest thing I have found for making decent antagonists is give them a backstory of their own, just as detailed as the protagonist's. Then you'll know how they react to certain situations as well as why they are trying to thwart the protagonist. It'll also give the antagonist consistency and you'll be *less* likely to fall into overused tropes with dialogue/traps/scenes that have been written hundreds of times before, because they don't necessarily fit the way your antagonist is built. I suppose the short way of saying it is make your antagonist as three dimensional as your protagonist(s). No one likes a flat villain.

I have about two protagonist: Alex and Caleb, who both attend the same high school. Despite it being a mystery, there is no murder. It's all mainly blackmail and such. The main antagonist(s) (if you take into account he has a brother that's been hidden from him his whole life, who also becomes an antagonist) I feel is very believable. He's grown up in the shadow of his brother, Caleb, and want's to be bigger than just being his brother, yet it doesn't really start out that way. He starts out blackmailing to protect his brother, but instead realizes his status and in the middle, turns against the both of them out of pure jealousy. But when he catches wind of trouble brewing between Alex and Caleb (because they get off on the worst start ever) he decides to blackmail Alex to keep him quiet. Some things happen, and soon Alex and Caleb are forced to work together to get behind why Jackson (the brother of the protagonist, Caleb) is doing the things he's doing. I believe his motive is very justified in a sense that his parents kind of ******** him over. So now, he's taking his revenge upon anyone who sort of gets in his way. But the main reason for the blackmail is that Alex learns a terrifying secret about Caleb, and Jackson does all this to shut him up.

God, I did not mean to rant or bore you with that little synopsis, but that's the jidst of it.

[Superindelible Marker]

The Fault In Our Lives

Haha not a problem! Synopses are very useful for context-setting and quick to read anyway.

Oh man, blackmail is way out of my comfort zone/league, best of luck! From what you've said though, there doesn't seem to be an issue in antagonist-development. You have a solid backstory going that doesn't seem far fetched. Interesting too, if I understood right and Jackson is blackmailing Alex to protect Caleb even though he hates him and wants to be more than Caleb. Yay multi-dimensional antagonists! (I've had problems with horrifically 2D antagonists before). Yeah, I guess my last little thought it try to make sure you do show all the aspects of your antagonist, not just the "I hate everyone and am blackmailing everyone" side. Doesn't seem like you'll have a problem with that, but intentions can get lost amidst the words.

[Umbre]

You seem to have a good handle of making him more of an anti-hero in my opinion. But you seem to already have a very good grasp of making a good antagonist as well. A good motive, cunning execution, and either subtle or memorable personality are all good traits. Your enemy is nothing but the hero of his own cause.

[The Fault In Our Lives]

Umbre

You seem to have a good handle of making him more of an anti-hero in my opinion. But you seem to already have a very good grasp of making a good antagonist as well. A good motive, cunning execution, and either subtle or memorable personality are all good traits. Your enemy is nothing but the hero of his own cause.

That was mainly what I was going for. The antagonist is always the hero of his story. In the beginning, its all to protect his brother from being exposed. But when Jackson himself finds a terrifying secret about his past, he turns on both Alex and Caleb because he's tired of living in his brother's shadow. So that's when he becomes a full on antagonist. Really, he's the main thing keeping the plot going. I mean, the story is actually a romance with a side of mystery, so keep in mind its much in par with the romance plot.

[Umbre]

The Fault In Our Lives

Umbre

You seem to have a good handle of making him more of an anti-hero in my opinion. But you seem to already have a very good grasp of making a good antagonist as well. A good motive, cunning execution, and either subtle or memorable personality are all good traits. Your enemy is nothing but the hero of his own cause.

That was mainly what I was going for. The antagonist is always the hero of his story. In the beginning, its all to protect his brother from being exposed. But when Jackson himself finds a terrifying secret about his past, he turns on both Alex and Caleb because he's tired of living in his brother's shadow. So that's when he becomes a full on antagonist. Really, he's the main thing keeping the plot going. I mean, the story is actually a romance with a side of mystery, so keep in mind its much in par with the romance plot.

You've done well then. You may want to remove spoilers for later though / have the post taken down if you have intent of publishing. Should you need a proof reader, let me know.

[Slatefire]

An antagonist is simply a character who creates conflict, and whose desires conflict or interfere with the protagonists' and possibly other characters in the story.

An antagonist can be a mother-in-law, a mean little sister, an actual villain type, or even a best friend, so long as s/he meets the above criteria.

[reminiscentdusk]

What makes a good antagonist?

Fear. ninja yum_onigiri

[Snuffii]

I'd have to say ...relateable.. like you can understand why they are doing what they are doing (even if you dont agree with it)
They have to have a reason and a drive for their actions or else it is just another shallow, basic character..
Ask yourself over and over "Why?" like... why are they doing this? why did that happen? what made that happen and why? etc etc etc... and eventually a full character will develop. And the reason he is the antagonist is because i suppose he has opposite goals to the protagonist..you can choose whether you want the readers to like or dislike them.

[Maltese_Falcon91]

Superindelible Marker

The main thing for antagonists is, for the love of all, make them believable. They have to believe their own cause is right - no human or creature wants to think they are the bad guy. The easiest thing I have found for making decent antagonists is give them a backstory of their own, just as detailed as the protagonist's. Then you'll know how they react to certain situations as well as why they are trying to thwart the protagonist. It'll also give the antagonist consistency and you'll be *less* likely to fall into overused tropes with dialogue/traps/scenes that have been written hundreds of times before, because they don't necessarily fit the way your antagonist is built. I suppose the short way of saying it is make your antagonist as three dimensional as your protagonist(s). No one likes a flat villain.

This is mostly solid advice. I'm going to have to disagree with a bit of what you wrote, though.

Sometimes it's perfectly okay to write a bad guy who is perfectly aware that he is the bad guy, and has absolutely no illusions that what he's going is right or just. Order of the Stick and Batman: The Dark Knight both pulled that off beautifully. It's a complicated balancing act, when it comes to writing those characters, it's easy to go too far towards one side and make them an over the top Captain Planet villain, and it's easy to go too far towards the other and make them too sympathetic and relatable, defeating the entire point of them in the first place.

[Superindelible Marker]

Maltese_Falcon91

This is mostly solid advice. I'm going to have to disagree with a bit of what you wrote, though.

Sometimes it's perfectly okay to write a bad guy who is perfectly aware that he is the bad guy, and has absolutely no illusions that what he's going is right or just. Order of the Stick and Batman: The Dark Knight both pulled that off beautifully. It's a complicated balancing act, when it comes to writing those characters, it's easy to go too far towards one side and make them an over the top Captain Planet villain, and it's easy to go too far towards the other and make them too sympathetic and relatable, defeating the entire point of them in the first place.

Very true, I can't argue that - nor would I try to. I'm actually in the midst of writing a book with such an antagonist and it is... interesting dancing around that line. I tend to like villians more than heroes when I read so I'm pretty sure I accidentally made an anti-hero instead, but eh, that's how things develop. I was thinking, though, for this and the sake of the typical, 'standard' story to say the bad guy should believe he's in the right. Once you have a feel for developing characters like that you can bend and shatter the 'rules' of typicality.

[Maltese_Falcon91]

Superindelible Marker

I was thinking, though, for this and the sake of the typical, 'standard' story to say the bad guy should believe he's in the right. Once you have a feel for developing characters like that you can bend and shatter the 'rules' of typicality.

Pretty much. To me, writing has always been a lesson in exceptions.

[FakeSatyre]

thing I find that makes a good antagonist is motive. age doesn't matter as much to me, as long as you write it well and I can follow their reasoning.

[Kairi Nightingale]

It's not really age so much as experience that would limit a character. A young character naturally has less experience than an older character, but if a young character has been, say, painting for seven years while an older character has never picked up a paint brush, then the younger character has more experience in painting despite their age.

So think about the experiences your characters have and judge for yourself whether they have the appropriate experiences to do and know what they have to in the story. If you have to increase their age to give them enough time to have the appropriate amount of experience in something, then do so.